Free Spirit Seeker by Joan Lowery Nixon Page A

talk about the Garnetts’ murder.”
    A shiver ran up my backbone. “What are you telling me? That you saw …” I gulped and started over, my voice quivering. “Are you saying that you
saw
the murder across the street in your mind?”
    “Some of it,” she said. “Only that which I was allowed to see.”
    I stood up, my knees so wobbly I could hardly stand. What was I doing in this house with this strange woman? “Uh … maybe you should tell the police,” I said.
    Glenda stood and put a hand on my arm. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t even move. “As I told you, I saw only some of what took place in the house that night,” she said. A look of horror shivered across her face, and I waited, unable to breathe, until she composed herself. “Unfortunately,” she added, “I did not see the face of the murderer.”
    Frantically I pulled away and edged toward the front door. “Well, maybe,” I suggested, wishing I were anyplace but there, “you should think some more about it and …”
    “I have thought about it,” she said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t have captured the entire scene in my mind, even though it would be excruciatingly hard to bear. But there is another route to discovery. To succeed, I would need to visit the Garnetts’ house.”
    I stumbled backward, toward the front door. “Uh … you’ll have to talk to Cody or his uncle or maybe the police about that.”
    Her dark eyes drilled into mine as she said, “I would like to visit the house with
you.
”
    My elbow banged against the door, and I winced as I groped for the knob. “No. Not with me,” I said.
    “Yes,” she insisted. “With you, because you are an amber person. Because you have the power and the gifts.”
    My fingers reached the knob, and I tugged, but it wouldn’t open. Desperately I said, “I don’t! Really, I don’t!”
    “Hush,” Glenda said. “Listen. Relax. Just openyour mind and listen. I have something to tell you.”
    Maybe it was the depth of her dark eyes, maybe I was just so frightened I couldn’t fight another minute, or maybe it was the musical softness of her voice. I leaned against the door, shut out the jumble of thoughts that had been jolting like electric sparks through my mind, and listened.
    Don’t be afraid of what you can do
, Glenda said.
    “I’m not afraid,” I answered defensively.
    “I didn’t speak aloud,” Glenda told me, and I realized with a shock that she was right. I’d been looking right at her, and her lips hadn’t moved.
    “I heard the words in my mind. How did that happen?”
    “Telepathy,” Glenda answered my question. “Amber girl, we were able to communicate through our minds.”
    “No!” Suddenly the world jerked back into focus. I turned my back on Glenda, flipped the dead bolt away from the door, and threw it open.
    As I pulled off my amber barrette, my hair tumbled across my forehead. The barrette burned my fingers, and I wished I could throw it away, but I couldn’t. It was my most valuable possession—a smooth, gleaming oval of amber set in a silver filigree frame—and I treasured it because Mom had given it to me.
    “It doesn’t matter if you wear the amber or not,” Glenda said. “The amber has already recognized your power. As I told you, the stone is mystical and calls to those who can respond.”
    “Look … I didn’t buy the barrette. My mom did.”
    “No matter how it came into your possession, it was meant to be yours,” Glenda said. “Come back when you’re ready, Holly. I’ll be here waiting.”
    Gasping for breath, I ran as fast as I could down the twisting path and across the street. I jumped into Mom’s car, turned on the ignition with fingers so shaky they could hardly hold on to the key, and drove away fast.
    I drove straight home. Glenda Jordan scared me to death!
    When I burst into the house, I found Mom in the den, correcting her fourth-graders’ math papers. She looked up in surprise as I flopped into